To celebrate 13 weeks of winter, Hàlön Chronicles will be conducting one interview a week for 13 weeks. We’ve also partnered with additional artists and authors for a few surprises throughout the winter. Join us on the hashtag #13Winterviews, or check out our blog hop for a sneak peek at who’s on the roster in the coming weeks.
Hosted by: K. J. Harrowick
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Buzhamal Apsatarova Smith. It has been 9 years since I immigrated to the US from Kyrgyzstan. Growing up I had tremendous interest in the English language. I started learning it since middle school and been continuously learning ever since. I received my degree in teaching English. I had taught English in schools, worked as interpreter and the knowledge of English has given me the opportunity to achieve many enjoyable successes and opened the doors to new horizons. Today, I am married to my lovely husband and live in beautiful Washington State.
2. I’m dying to know more about your YouTube video project. Can you tell us what it is and how it got started?
I teach English language to Kyrgyz students via YouTube educational channel. The channel is open to public and has about 45 beginner video lessons to date. I plan and create the lessons on my leisure time. The reason I started the channel is this past summer my parents visited us in the US for the first time and stayed with us for three month. During their stay they have met many people, neighbors, friends and family. They realized they wanted to be able to converse with people even it is a basic conversation. So I started teaching English to them daily. To my surprise they were great students. They studied diligently and soon they were able to say some cool phrases. After they left home an idea came to me. I could continue teaching them remotely through YouTube video lessons. And so it began… My channel is gaining new viewers on a daily basis and is getting great feedback from students in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and even Egypt.
3. What were your early influences, and how does this manifest in your work today?
I think living in the US for the last nine years has affected my style of teaching from what I grew up with or what has been taught to me in Kyrgyz schools. I want to bring practical bits of learning material in my videos covering vocabulary, grammar, reading, building sentences, translating and conversation. These short videos are understandable, digestible and memorable.
4. What’s been the biggest surprise to come out of this?
The biggest surprise has been the response from viewers. It is nice to see the watch times and subscribers growing daily. Students look forward to the next edition of the lessons and engage with video lessons by commenting and posting their responses to the home assignments. There are a lot of students who are looking for learning English and I am happy to help them in this way.
5. Tell us about your workspace.
I plan and create the videos on weekends or whenever I have free time. I like to go to the cozy community room where I live with hot cup of tea and sit by the window and let my mind create the next sequence.
Curious to know more about Buzhamal Apsatarova Smith? Be sure to visit her YouTube channel or you can follow her on Twitter.
Don’t forget to check out this year’s Winterviews and partner interviews. You can also follow this blog and be the first to know when new content is released.
Fascinating interview! I was trying to remember how to pronounce the Cyrillic letters from my few years of Russian in college.